Well it's a new year and time to make my resolutions. Exercise more, eat healthier, read more books, all the typical promises to myself. Oh, and one more: drink my wine sooner rather than later.

When it comes to wine I have this bad habit of holding onto wine too long. I rent a vault from one of our stores and once I put a wine in typically it doesn't come out until the wine is too old.

Renting a wine vault is a great way to start a collection. Your wine is stored at the perfect temperature and humidity and you have to make a special trip during business hours to get your wine. This prevents your friends from opening your prized bottle of 2000 Mouton Rothschild at 2AM after you have fallen asleep on the couch....not that anything like that has ever happened to me.

This past New Year's Eve I made the trip to our store in Boca Raton to extract some wine for the big night. I was attending a party where there was quite a variety of wine open but I was confident my wines would impress.

The first wine I opened was a 1996 Vintage Moet & Chandon Champagne. 1996 was a classic vintage for Champagne so I was sure this would be a great start to the evening. Wrong! The wine had a golden color and more than hints of oxidation on the nose. Sure people tried it but no one came back for more.

Next I opened a 1995 Barolo from Alessandro Brero. The Wine Advocate described the wine as having a deep garnet color with a spicy, dried herb, foresty nose. Most of what I smelled was stewed fruit and cough syrup. Ok, strike two.

Finally I opened a 1995 Lafon Rochet. Once again the Wine Advocate had a nice review...impressively saturated deep ruby/purple color accompanied by vanillin, earth, and spicy scents. Outstanding richness in a powerful, well-delineated finish. The wine opened with a beautiful nose similar to the description but within a half hour the fruit began to fade. Had I waited too long on this one as well?

On New Year's Day as I refelected back on the evening and the wines I came to the conclusion I'll just have to start drinking more wine at a faster pace. I'm pretty sure that's a resolution I can keep.

Paul Quaglini

Wine Supervisor